108 COSMOS. 



such small bodies from the larger planets, there is di. possibility 

 — supposing" a meeting of these comets to occur in October — • 

 that the inhabitants of the Earth may witness the extraordi- 

 nary spectacle of an encounter between two cosmical bodies, 

 and possibly of their reciprocal penetration and amalgamation, 

 or of their destruction by means of exhausting emanations. 

 Events of this nature, resulting either from deflection occa- 

 sioned by disturbing masses or primevally intersecting orbits, 

 must have been of frequent occurrence in the course of mill- 

 ions of years in the immeasurable regions of ethereal space ; 

 but they must be regarded as isolated occurrences, exercising 

 no more general or alterative effects on cosmical relations than 

 the breaking forth or extinction of a volcano within the limit- 

 ed sphere of our Earth. 



A third interior comet, having likev/ise a short period of 

 revolution, was discovered by Faye on the 22d of November, 

 1843, at the Observatory at Paris. Its elliptic path, which 

 approaches much more nearly to a circle than that of any 

 other known comet, is included within the orbits of Mars and 

 Saturn. This comet, therefore, which, according to Gold- 

 schmidt, passes beyond the orbit of Jupiter, is one of the few 

 whose perihelia are beyond Mars. Its period of revolution is 

 7y-/o years, and it is not improbable that the form of its pres- 

 ent orbit may be owing to its great approximation to Jupiter 

 at the close of the year 1839. 



If we consider the comets in their inclosed elliptic orbits as 

 members of our solar system, and with respect to the length 

 of their major axes, the amount of their eccentricity, and their 

 periods of revolution, we shall probably find that the three 

 planetary comets of Encke, Biela, and Faye are most nearly 

 approached in these respects, first, by the comet discovered in 

 1766 by Messier, and which is regarded by Clausen as iden- 

 tical with the third comet of 1819; and, next, by the fourth 

 comet of the last-mentioned year, discovered by Blaupain, but 

 considered by Clausen as identical with that of the year 1743, 

 and whose orbit appears, like that of Lexell's comet, to have 

 suffered great variations from the proximity and attraction of 

 Jupiter. The two last-named comets would likewise seem to 

 have a period of revolution not exceeding five or six years, and 

 their aphelia are in the vicinity of Jupiter's orbit. Among 

 the comets that have a period of revolution of from seventy to 



comet of 1819, see Astr. Nachr., 1833, No. 239 ; and on the identity of 

 the comet of 1743 and the fourth comet of 1819, see No. 237 of the last 

 mentioned work. 



